Eric	"Cintiq?" Wed November 18, 2009 at 11:56 am How about a Cintiq hooked up to a more decent PC than you're likely to built into a tablet? http://www.wacom.com/cintiq/ You could throw together a small form factor (think Shuttle or similar) machine that's portable(ish) depending on where you settle to work, then use the Cintiq tablet as your screen/interface. For any sort of complex app you'll want the larger Cintiq, I've got the smaller one, which is very nice, but I do need secondary monitors to use most of the professional applications.
Bryan	"Tablet PC's" July 10, 2009 Ryan, I'm not an atist, but I have a recommendation for you on a tablet pc. Look at motioncomputing.com I have used one of their tablets for the past three years with not a single problem. The model that is comparable with the one I have is the LE1700. I am very satisfied with the computer and the accessories. (8 hour battery rocks!) Give 'em a try.
Shawny	"Tablet PCs" June 30, 2009 Ryan - I have used several tablets over the past years, starting with SLATE versions and currently have a convertible. I have used Fujitsu, Toshiba and IBM (Lenovo). For power, you should look at a convertible version. The slate type will be limited. The Lenovo I have is both a tablet and multi-touch screen. Meaning I can use my finger directly on the screen. I find the convenience of multiple input mechanisms to be a high-point. I have used several painting-type programs, nothing as high-end as your tools. I have found the tablet works well, as well as a stand-alone WACOM input will. Though the software tool itself will effect how well the system works. For my money, the Lenovo has been a workhorse and I love it. The only thing I would change is having an integrated camera - which the newer ones have.
Jason	"I guess my 2 cents" June 25, 2009 I am a warranty hardware technician. I provide next day onsite service in the Dallas area. I service mainly Dells. So for my 2 cents, from my experience, Dell may not have the greatest hardware, but I can honestly say from professional and personal experience that Dell has the best onsite next day support. I personally have a monster of an HP notebook(nx9420). Mine has not had any major problems. I'm currently on a 3rd party warranty, so if I do need any major repairs, I must send in the machine to be worked on. So I recently purchased 2 broken ones of my model off eBay, combined them and have another 1 working. One still has valid warranty from HP and I am now working on getting the 3rd one running. It took 3 emails to HP to convince them that hardware service is what I do for a living. Even though I diagnosed the problem with the 3rd one, they refused to send all the right parts I needed the first time. I am now still waiting on a replacement LCD which I originally requested in March. Now more professional experiences, Gateway, now Acer, probably has the worst hardware and support. I do service these, but only rarely. I have heard various opinions on Tosibia's, Sony, IBM, which is now Lenovo, and I do not have much experience in the Apple side. So to sum up the hardware/support side of these machines: Dell - may have hardware problems, but where there is a problem, you'll have a near painless experience with service - another note towards the Dell Tablets, I have only had a couple service calls on these in my 4 years doing this, and almost all have been for a hinge problem which does not keep it from working HP - has better hardware, but their support is not very good Gateway/Acer - I would actually say you'll have the odds of Vegas with these machines, you might get one that performs flawless, and if you get a problem child, the support goes along with it The other brands, I would probably say follow along with HP
Gabe	"Tablets" May 8, 2009 Ironic I stumble across this post because I'm eyeballing an ASUS T91 (tablet netbook), and hoping it will come out stateside soon. However, my needs differ. :-) In my searches I have two I'd recommend: Dell XT2: Intel Core 2 Duo ULV processor SU9400 (1.2 or 1.4GHz) Vista or 64bit flavors, downgradable to XP Tablet edition. Small form factor. 12.1" Premium WXGA (1280x800) LED Display (Wide View) 12.1" Premium WXGA (1280x800) Daylight Viewable LED Display (Wide View) The downer: Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD (no Memory size cited on the site - not targeted towards graphics users, but should be a powerhouse processor wise). *** Alternatively *** HP tx2-1020us Tablet PC AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82(2.20GHz) 12.1" Wide XGA 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Radeon HD 3200 4GB max memory, with an AMD Turion X2 Ultra (ZM-82(2.20Ghz) w/2MB L2 cache It's more sluggish per the reviews (likely due to Vista), but potentially batter graphics than Intel's of course, but this is where maxing out the memory will help. This is heavier but also has a high-definition hp brightview display (1280x800) Video Memory is 64MB GDDR2 - up to 1982MB total per advertised specs. Also recommend the 6-cell battery or an extra as it can suck it down per reviews. (Available on Newegg.com starting at $1k) Hope that helps! - Gabe
AriW	"Tablet PC Deal" March 13, 2009 Ryan, have you seen this? http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/lenovos-thinkpad-x61-tablet-selling-for-a-song-or-649/ Good deal for a decent Tablet PC. Most of these machines have screens OEM'd by Wacom, so pressure sensitivity should work in apps that recognize it. I use a Wacom Cintiq and I love it. They make a small version with a long enough cord that would work tethered to a small desktop PC or even a laptop. Not fully portable, but it might be an option if you can set it up next to a couch/bed/comfy chair or whatever away from your desk. Cheers, AriW
Justin	"An alternative!" March 13, 2009 One of my co-workers has a condition that makes it difficult for her to be seated all day at a desk. The solution was fairly simple. She got a taller desk that allowed her to work while standing. To be more accurate, it is more like a draftman's table with a set of monitors set at eye level. For convenience, a comfortable stool was provided so that she could also sit. Here is an example: http://www.draftingtables.com/drafting-tables/adjustable-height-tables/safcoadjustablesplitleveldraftingtable.cfm Sometimes technology does not provide the best solution. In this case, portable computers are not always the most comfortable to use. You might find yourself substituting one form of strain for another.
Phat	"Other Options" March 6, 2009 Tablet PCs, in my experience, have never lived up to their hype. They are no where near as precise as one would like, at least compared to a drawing tablet. I know of several people who have created a way to use a PC in this nature from a bed or recliner. I do a lot of painting for a racing sim, so sometimes we have people asking creative ways to keep doing it if you can't sit at a desk. I'll ask around and get some thoughts.
Kenny J	"Tablets" March 6, 2009 Well, I'm no 'fellow artist' but I have many years in desktop support so maybe I can offer something in experience. Keep in mind, when you say you don't sit in your office chair, I don't know if that means your confined to bed, or if you sit in a recliner. There are a number of options in the tablet line, HP has been mentioned, also Viewsonic has put out tablets for quite some time and do a very good job. I think when you start looking you'll be amazed at the options you do have available. Since you are at home try looking a Newegg.com or Zipzoomfly.com they will offer a good sampling of tablets and notebooks for you to look into. Back to being, or not, being a 'fellow artist'. I started learning to draw this last year, mainly graphite, and being at a computer so much I have checked out what is offered at a workstation level. Now my understanding is the pressure sensitity is produced by the software that you use and not so much the hardware. If you have software on your laptop that you 'draw or sketch' with already, and can transfer the data over to your main workstation in a format that you can finalize your render. You may want to look at just adding a sketching pad to your laptop. Wacom has a full line of options from the basic to the elaborate. This option is the one I would recommend as it is the least expensive and we are talking, let us hope, a temporary solution. There are also a number of drawing programs available as I'm sure you are aware of so I won't go into that. OK, way too long, but I try to be thourough in case someone actually takes my advice. It comes from being 'the computer guy' in my family and circle of friends. Hope this helps and more importantly I hope things are going well with you and your family.
Colin	"HP Tablet" March 6, 2009 Recently while I was on leave visiting my brother, I had the opportunity to mess around with one of his tablet laptops that has (He used to work for Hewlett-Packard and still has quite a few toys from before he got downsized last year). The tablet I was using was lightweight, comfortable to hold and had numerous options as far as pressure sensitivity and the like that were built into Windows for using a stylus with it. Now whether or not it's compatible with a application, I couldn't say, however it would be worth looking in to.
Ryan	"Horsepower" March 5, 2009 I'm not looking for a rendering powerhouse here. I just need decent 3D performance. I imagine I will do all final renders on my main machine. I'm more interested in "drawing" on this machine than rendering.
Paul	"Crazy, remote" March 5, 2009 I think it's probably crazy to try to cram a lotta horsepower into a laptop. Your best bet is to try to find a remote desktop solution that will function adequately. I imagine that's hard with graphics packages, but because of heat and power restrictions, you're just not going to have the same experience on a laptop that you will on a regular desktop PC.
Lincoln	"Feedback" March 5, 2009 Might be worth your while to hop over at some graphics or 3d forums and pose the same question. You'll probably get a lot more qualified answers there. I myself do not use any such device - I'm totally a workstation man myself. Best of luck to you Ryan in finding more info on this, as well as to your continued road to recovery. -Lincoln SuccessWallpapers.com

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